"Metaphysicians of Meaning" is the first book to challenge the accepted understanding of Russell's "On Denoting" and Frege's "On Sense and Reference." Makin compares the work Russell did shortly before his famous essay "On Denoting" with the essay itself and argues that this comparison shows that the traditional view of the problem Russell was trying to solve is untenable. He then examines Frege's classic essay and argues that some of the less well-known views that Frege held have radical implications for our understanding of this essay.

List of abbreviations

p. ix

Introduction

p. 1

Russell

p. 9

Russell's first theory of denoting

p. 11

The elements

p. 11

The mathematical context

p. 13

Denoting, definition and identity

p. 16

Three essential elements

p. 17

Post-PoM developments

p. 20

The collapse of the first theory and the discovery of the theory of descriptions